Fishing is an ancient and well known activity which has been widely practiced in virtually all civilizations in which access is obtained to bodies of water, rivers, lakes, oceans, ponds and the like. From earliest times, people have fished to provide a valuable source of food and nutrition. Today, much of the fishing utilized is commercial in nature and is directed toward the harvest of large food supplies from the ocean or other bodies of water. Thus, for the most part, commercial fishing may be characterized as large volume, highly efficient operations in which multiple lines bearing multiple fish hooks are typically employed or in which extensive nets are used to capture large volumes of fish. The clear objective of commercial type fishing is to maximize the volume and weight of fish harvested.
Sport fishing, on the other hand, has developed along other lines and is typically not directed to large volume harvesting. Rather, sport fishing often focuses on the challenge and difficulty of catching fish in a particular environment rather than maximizing the catch. Sport fishing often utilizes a variety of fishing lures which have become popular and extensive. In a typical sport fishing activity of the type to which the present invention is most generally directed, the user employs a long flexible rod which supports a casting or spinning type reel. The reel supports a quantity of fishing line which is guided from the reel to the end of the fishing rod by a plurality of eyelets positioned along the length of the fishing rod. A fishing lure supporting a plurality of fish hooks is secured to the end of the fishing line.
The activity of casting type sport fishing is carried forward as the user employs the rod to impart energy to the lure in a whip-action casting motion which projects the lure and trailing fishing line outwardly to the body of water. Often, the user attempts to exercise some accuracy in casting and intends to target a particular area or portion of the body of water. Additionally, the user often desires to operate the fishing lure within a selected range of water depth. Once the lure has been successfully cast to the desired area and has reached the desired depth, the user then retrieves the lure by reeling in the fishing line causing the lure to “swim” back to the user. The object of this activity is to prompt a fish within the water to strike or attack the lure under a deception or motivation created by the lure and its activity.
The great popularity of casting-type sport fishing has prompted practitioners in the art to develop a substantial variety of fishing lures and other similar apparatus. Within this variety, some lures are fabricated to resemble prey creatures in appearance. Other types of lures employ one or more highly reflective surface portions intended to “flash” using ambient light within the water as the lure spins or moves prompting a fish to quickly strike the lure. Other types of fishing lures are fabricated of flexible rubber-like material to resemble prey which has a given shape and skin characteristic. Still other types of fishing lures utilize articulated bodies formed of a plurality of body segments joined by pivotal attachments. The objective of such lures is to provide a swimming action on the part of the lure due to its segmented fabrication.
In addition to a variety of fabrications provided by practitioners in the art relating to the appearance and action of fishing lures, other improvements have been provided by practitioners which are directed to the performance of the lures within the water. For example, many fishing lures generally referred to as “top water baits” are fabricated with sufficient buoyancy to swim at or near the water surface and are constructed to implement a side-to-side zigzag” travel path when the user abruptly jerks the fishing rod to quickly accelerate the lure in the water. Still other fishing lures have been fabricated in a manner which provides a predetermined total buoyancy utilizing various materials and often employing metal weights to achieve a predetermined depth level of operation by the lure as it is reeled in by the user.
While the foregoing described prior art fishing lures have to some extent improved the art and have in some instances enjoyed commercial success, there remains nonetheless a continuing and unresolved need in the art for evermore improved fishing lures. There remains a particular unresolved need in the art for improved fishing lures which exhibit greater controllability when operating within the water.